How can you move votes away from any of those teams, on weeks
when they beat other ranked teams by three scores or more?

One way highly ranked teams get leapfrogged is on weeks when
they play weak opponents as the teams near them in the rankings
play strong ones. So -- probably not intentionally -- to make sure
voters didn't overlook them, No. 3 UMHB beat Howard Payne, 80-0,
and No. 5 Bethel beat Hamline, 55-6.

The nine voters who don't have Mount Union ranked first could
flip their votes to the Purple Raiders, now that they have two wins
over ranked teams (Frankin, Heidelberg). But if that was a voter's
criteria, Bethel and Linfield have met it at times this season
too.

In any case, the big movement will be lower in the poll, where
losers of the four top 25 clashes fall, what happens with two-loss
St. Thomas, as the 18th-ranked Tommies won by three at
well-regarded Augsburg, and No. 22 St. John's, which lost to
Gustavus Adolphus in double overtime.

Five more quick reactions to Week 9's results:

• The ODAC leader at the beginning of the day, Guilford,
lost 52-0 at home against Hampden-Sydney. So clearly the Tigers,
now 4-1, 6-2 to the Quakers' 4-1, 5-3 are the ODAC's best team now,
right? Except the Tigers lost just last week to Shenanadoah (2-3,
3-5), which lost this week, 42-7, to Randolph-Macon (4-1, 6-2).
Except that the Yellow Jackets were coming off a loss to the
Quakers. So yeah ... I know we keep harping on it, how coaches love
to say "this is a conference in which any team can beat you in any
given week," but in the ODAC it actually happens.

• More proof that there's no blueprint for victory:
Greensboro scored 50 and Dubuque 46 and managed to lose. Wash. U.
scored 9 and Rowan 10 and managed to win.

• Rowan is back atop the NJAC less than a month after
a 20-point loss at Morrisville State seemed to knock the Profs out
of the title picture. Since the loss, the Profs have regrouped to
beat Wesley, win at William Paterson, and hung on against Cortland
State, protecting a 10-9 lead the entire second half. They have
Kean and TCNJ left, but they could be a dangerous road team in
Round 1 of the playoffs.

• The MAC got a shocker when King's -- now 5-2, 5-3 --
stunned Lycoming and Lebanon Valley came from behind to beat
Delaware Valley. That leaves the conference with the Flying
Dutchmen (6-1, 7-1) out in front and five 5-3 teams and two 4-4
teams right behind. In other words, everything from second to
eighth place in the 10-team conference in up for grabs in Weeks 10
and 11.

Adam Turer graduated in 2006 from Washington and Lee University, where he was a two-year starter at free safety. He lives in Cincinnati and covers area high school sports in addition to his full-time job as an attorney. Adam has contributed to D3football.com since 2007 and is in his first season writing Around the Nation after spending four seasons writing Around the Mid-Atlantic.